


Not a Burden

by AccioSherbertLemon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Chronic Illness, Comfort, Crohn's, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fred Weasley Imagine, Hurt/Comfort, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Mild Hurt/Comfort, One Shot, Reader has Crohn's, Reader has chronic illness, Short One Shot, Weasley twins, crohn's disease, ibd, imagine, ulcerative colitis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:29:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24911629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AccioSherbertLemon/pseuds/AccioSherbertLemon
Summary: Reader is Fred Weasley's girlfriend but hasn't told him about her Crohn's because she doesn't want to be seen as a burden.
Relationships: Fred Weasley/Original Female Character(s), Fred Weasley/Reader, Fred Weasley/You
Kudos: 37
Collections: Harry Potter Imagine One Shots





	Not a Burden

“Your turn!” I grinned at him, proud of my move which had left the Jenga tower precariously balancing on one block. 

“Challenge accepted,” he declared, and to my surprise, he found a loose block close to the top that came out without so much as a wobble of the tower.

“Your turn,” he smirked back at me with a slight wink, “good luck.” I scanned the tower, trying to find a block that looked like it wanted to slip out with ease. I was sure that the tower would have fallen by now, and I wasn’t liking my chances. Just as I was testing a block with the smallest nudge of my finger, my face contorted. Fred didn’t notice at first, his eyes still locked on the unstable tower. 

My finger remained barely touching the block as my focus was drawn to the twisting and cramping of my insides. I curled my toes and gritted my teeth, silently urging the pain to pass. 

“Y/n?” I opened my eyes, not knowing when I’d closed them, only that my pain had drawn me away from the current moment and into my own body. Fred was looking at me, eyebrows knitted together.

“Sorry, I just need a moment, nothing serious,” I replied with a weak smile. Tentatively, he brought his hands to hold one of mine which was still hovering by our forgotten game. He stroked his thumbs around my palm, looking at me with concern. We stayed like that for a while, him not knowing what to say, and me fighting the urge to curl into a ball on the floor. I knew where this was going next, and I apologised again before excusing myself to the bathroom, where I spent most of the night.

\--

I hadn’t told Fred about my Crohn’s yet. I wanted him to see me as more than an illness, as more than someone who needs comforting when she’s in pain. But it was becoming so obvious as the frequency of my bouts of pain and toilet trips increased, and I could no longer play them off as period problems.

The next day we had a lazy morning in bed, which I desperately needed due to being disturbed in the night by my misbehaving guts. We were lying face to face, and Fred started speaking as he tucked a strand of my hair behind my ear.

“If and when you want to talk about what happened last night, I’m here to listen.” I stayed silent. “I know that it wasn’t a one off - unless you have several periods a month.” He said this with a teasing wink, but also a gentle smile that let me know I was safe with him.

I sighed, collecting my thoughts, and decided to voice my concerns to my boyfriend. After all, he’s never given me a reason not to trust him.

“It’s just… I’m just…” I struggled for the right words, “I just don’t want you to see me as an illness, as… as a burden.” That was the word that had been weighing on me the most. I sat up and looked away from him, cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

“Y/n,” he said after a moment, his voice sounding pained, “please look at me.”

I turned, feeling a tear make its way down my cheek. I’d never said it out loud before, but that was my biggest fear in any relationship. After all, who wants to spend their life having to look after their partner? I couldn’t even finish a game of Jenga for goodness sake! 

Fred brushed the tear off tenderly with his thumb. I’d never seen him look so serious, the smile completely gone from his lips.

“I will never see you as a burden. It makes me so sad that you’d even think that.” My teariness must have been catching because his eyes were glimmering too. “Y/n, when I look at you I see a smart, funny, beautiful girl who I’m so lucky to call my girlfriend. George still thinks I had to use a love potion to get you to go out with me.” He chuckled, his spark returning. “And no illness could ever change how wonderful you are.”

I threw my arms around him and gripped him tightly, too overcome with emotion to speak properly. He rubbed my back gently, and whispered into my ear “I love you, y/n. So much.”

My heart swelled as I replied, “I love you too,” and gripped him with all of my strength.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Please know that if you have a chronic illness you are never a burden, you are a wonderful whole person who is worthy of love <3 For more check out my Tumblr @potterverseimagine - requests are currently open!


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